Breaking news

Audio 4:30
Cannibalism confirmed in Jamestown

Scientists in the US have revealed they've found the first solid archaeological evidence that some of the earliest English colonists only survived harsh conditions by turning to cannibalism.

Transcript

ELEANOR HALL: Forensic police investigations are increasingly been used to solve long abandoned criminal cases.

Now the science has confirmed claims about a grisly chapter of American history.

Scientists in the US say they have solid archaeological evidence of cannibalism among the first British colonists on the east coast of America.

Barney Porter has our story.

BARNEY PORTER: Many early accounts of the founding of the Americas painted a picture of rugged individuals taming the land, and it original inhabitants, to set the foundations for a powerful, modern nation.

This is from a 1950s documentary entitled Scenes from American History: The New World.

NARRATOR (extract from documentary): In 1607, a party of Englishmen comes to establish the first settlement. Indians approach them with suspicion but the strangers offer tools and trinkets in exchange for fresh-killed game. This simple trade is the beginning of a cautious friendship.

BARNEY PORTER: The reality was a tad different as alluded to in this excerpt.

NARRATOR (extract from documentary): John Smith, an English captain, takes command when men start off to hunt for gold. He sets them to building shelters and fences. Soon the food they brought will be exhausted. They must clear land to harvest their own crops. They must learn from their Indian friends how to raise maize and tobacco.

BARNEY PORTER: That first permanent English settlement, at Jamestown in Virginia, was founded by just over 100 people in 1607.

Their numbers dwindled to 38 after the first nine months, due to starvation, drought and disease and left them highly dependent on re-supply ships from England.

There have been many accounts of the settlers eating dogs, cats, rats, mice, snakes, even shoe leather to stave off starvation.

There were also accounts of settlers eating their own dead, but archaeologists had been sceptical -until now.

William Kelso is the chief archaeologist at Jamestown.

WILLIAM KELSO: There are five accounts, or actually six accounts, in the records that, that these, that there was cannibalism. And they have different - ranges from eyewitnesses at the time to hearsay later on in the 17th Century.

So, I think that's essential. I mean that's the background and that was a subject that was debated by historians without this, without this evidence. Now that we have this evidence it's pretty clear that these accounts were true.

BARNEY PORTER: The evidence comes from the discovery of the skull of a 14-year-old girl.

DOUGLAS OWSLEY: This is Jane

BARNEY PORTER: Douglas Owsley is a forensic anthropologist at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.

He examined Jane's remains and determined how her body was dismembered.

DOUGLAS OWSLEY: It's extremely limited skill in terms of kitchen technique. It is not the result of a butcher, someone that is working at their craft. Instead what we see is hesitancy, trial, tentativeness, and just an absolute, total lack of experience. This is not, in terms of the cut marks that you see in some of these unusual places, not the types of cutting that you would see in any type of animal butchering.

BARNEY PORTER: William Kelso again.

WILLIAM KELSO: The damage to the skull, and finding it with the other food remains, brought on serious thoughts that this was indeed evidence of survival cannibalism.

BARNEY PORTER: Jane's remains were found in a cellar that had been filled with rubbish including the bones of horses and other animals which Douglas Owsley believes were consumed in apparent desperation.

DOUGLAS OWSLEY: The person doing this was clearly interested in, based on what would have been accepted cuisine in the 17th Century, in cheek meat, muscles of the face, that area, and tongue, and, also in terms of 17th Century traditional cuts, would also include the brain.

BARNEY PORTER: The discovery is likely to detract from the happier mythology of John Smith and Pocahontas that many already associate with Jamestown.

James Horn is the vice-president of research and historical interpretation at the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation.

JAMES HORN: How many of the growing numbers of dead were cannibalised is unknown. But we don't believe Jane was a lone case. Only in the most desperate of circumstances would the English have turned to cannibalism.

BARNEY PORTER: Jane's skull will be placed on display at Jamestown along with a sign warning visitors of the room's contents